Suggestions for getting really old, brown masking (probably high tack) off of acrylic

so my FIL gave me a pile of 1/8" scrap acrylic a few years ago for xmas. 8x8 and 12x12 sheets of 1/8. but not colors i really use, so they sat on a shelf since xmas 2017. and they probably weren’t all that new when he bought them.

so… now i’m making mask clips for people. and i’m thinking this is a good time to use all of those sheets. like brown, a green i don’t love, etc. but even with a plastic razor, it’s just a nightmare peeling off that masking. even when i’m trying to do the whole sheet before cutting.

i know it’s come up before, but i couldn’t find it easily on a quick search (and i’m getting tired and frustrated after a long day and i’ve stabbed myself with that plastic razor a couple of times).

anyway, thoughts on dissolving that pro level brown paper masking off of the acrylic w/o damaging it? i have a few more sheets to cut in the morning before i head to the post office to drop off packages.

2 Likes

got any citrus goof off? Not the super high test petrochemical stuff, but the orange stuff?

2 Likes

I have had luck with heatgun/ hairdryer

1 Like

damn. no, only citrus cleaner i have is the fast orange hand cleaner. i wish i’d run into this earlier today before i was in home depot… but it is 1/4 mile from the post office i’ll be hitting up tomorrow.

and i saw someone mention that they donated some clips to their local Lowes, told them what they were doing, and the guy at Lowes gave them all the acrylic scrap cutoffs they had. it was enough to make another 1300 clips. so maybe i should try that and pick up some goof off while i’m there.

great idea, will try that too.

3 Likes

Way back when I first got my Glowforge I tried a lot of things, and soaking in Hand Sterilizer caused them to float away and I never saw any crazing.

any other time, that might be a legit option.

today? i couldn’t buy hand sanitizer if i wanted to.

One of the reasons we have enough is that I bought a lot of it for cleaning up laser work. There is still a 2 liter bottle I have not opened yet, but expect to start using it soon.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 32 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.